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that is brought about in the inner life of man. (2) It indicates in many passages and in various
ways the relation in which the different movements in the work of redemption stand to each
other. It teaches that we are justified by faith and not by works, Rom. 3:30; 5:1; Gal. 2:16-20;
that, being justified, we have peace with God and access to Him, Rom. 5:1,2; that we are set
free from sin to become servants of righteousness, and to reap the fruit of sanctification, Rom.
6:18,22; that when we are adopted as children, we receive the Spirit who gives us assurance,
and also become co-heirs with Christ, Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:4,5,6; that faith comes by the
hearing of the word of God, Rom. 10:17; that death unto the law results in life unto God, Gal.
2:19,20; that when we believe, we are sealed with the Spirit of God, Eph. 1:13,14; that it is
necessary to walk worthily of the calling with which we are called, Eph. 4:1,2; that having
obtained the righteousness of God by faith, we share the sufferings of Christ, and also the
power of His resurrection, Phil. 3:9,10; and that we are begotten again through the Word of
God, I Pet. 1:23. These and similar passages indicate the relation of the various movements of
the redemptive work to one another, and thus afford a basis for the construction of an ordo
salutis.
In view of the fact that the Bible does not specify the exact order that applies in the application
of the work of redemption, there is naturally considerable room for a difference of opinion. And
as a matter of fact the Churches are not all agreed as to the ordo salutis. The doctrine of the
order of salvation is a fruit of the Reformation. Hardly any semblance of it is found in the works
of the Scholastics. In pre-Reformation theology scant justice is done to soteriology in general. It
does not constitute a separate locus, and its constituent parts are discussed under other
rubrics, more or less as disjecta membra. Even the greatest of the Schoolmen, such as Peter the
Lombard and Thomas Aquinas, pass on at once from the discussion of the incarnation to that of
the Church and the sacraments. What may be called their soteriology consists of only two
chapters, de Fide et de Poenitentia. The bona opera also receive considerable attention. Since
Protestantism took its start from the criticism and displacement of the Roman Catholic
conception of faith, repentance, and good works, it was but natural that the interest of the
Reformers should center on the origin and development of the new life in Christ. Calvin was the
first to group the various parts of the order of salvation in a systematic way, but even his
representation, says Kuyper, is rather subjective, since it formally stresses the human activity
rather than the divine.[Dict. Dogm., De Salute, pp. 17 f.] Later Reformed theologians corrected
this defect. The following representations of the order of salvation reflect the fundamental
conceptions of the way of salvation that characterize the various Churches since the
Reformation.
1. THE REFORMED VIEW.
Proceeding on the assumption that man’s spiritual condition depends
on his state, that is, on his relation to the law; and that it is only on the basis of the imputed